Harry Potter's Worries

            ~~~~~~~~Chapter 4~~~~~~~~

Harry paced around the room, vaguely aware of the movements downstairs.

Why would Dumbledore want me to have this?

He couldn't think, he was probably hungry from all this excitement. He went down for breakfast.

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Hermione stared at what Ron had written to her. She CAN'T believe it, she just can't belive it. She quickly scribbled out the most appropiate reply.

~**********~

Ron waited eagerly for Hermione's reply, hoping Harry wasn't looking at the parchment.

"Oh, she'll get it alright..." Ron mused to himself.

Writing appeared. But by the furrowed brow of Ronald Weasley, it wasn't the reply he expected.

~**********~

Harry Potter was not looking at the magical parchment, he was at the Dursley's kitchen, chatting with Dudley.

Oh, yes. CHATTING WITH DUDLEY.

Since the dire warning of random freaks (in Uncle Vernon's view) Aunt petunia had instructed everybody to be cool around Harry. Uncle Vernon could do nothing but grunt, and Dudley just gaped open-mouthed at his mother. Harry enjoyed this very much. At first, the Dursley's were stiff and extremely formal towards him.

But after a while they SEEMED to warm up to him. Harry thought he'd never live to see this day.

"...and then that old geezer came around, so we put the whoopie..." Dudley was saying.

"Popkins, Harry... Breakfast is ready." Aunt Petunia's voice came from the dining room.

The two boys hurried to the table. Uncle Vernon's face was buried in a newspaper. Aunt Petunia was sipping her coffee. They settled themselves and began to eat a nice, hearty breakfast. Harry was really surprised at how the Dursleys were doing. He thought that the moment he got home, they would just ignore him---but no, they actually talked to him.

Dudley's reaction was the most surprising of all. He wasn't as dumb as Harry had thought, he just had dumb friends. Dudley must have been looking for a proper conversation all his life, one that didn't contain "popkin", "dudders", "neffy-poo", "Big D", "Pig", "Bully" and various levels of grunts. Dudley was actually a good companion.

For the first few days Harry didn't attempt anything. One Saturday afternoon, Harry saw Dudley down at the front garden, just sitting. He couldn't resist the urge. He called, "Hey Dud!!" Dudley looked up and saw his cousin, and answered, "Yeah?" That was the beginning.

Uncle Vernon snapped Harry out of his reverie by loudly clearing his throat. Harry looked apprehensively at his uncle. He's gonna announce something...

"Ahem, well, we all know this is a very important day..." Uncle Vernon said, with the smallest hint of pained expression.

Oh, must be another dinner party, Harry thought darkly. At least there wasn't a silly house elf out to save him.

Guess I'll be pretending I'm not there again.

"Ahem, uh... It's your birthday is it not?" Uncle Vernon looked at Harry, and Harry's mouth hung open.

"Yeah but..." Harry said, not believing his ears.

~**********~

Bloody buggers! Why did Hermione send me this?? She's got it all wrong! Ron looked exasperatedly at the parchment. I was just trying to---oh never mind, maybe it'll work out later. He then wrote back to Hermione...

~**********~

Why on earth would Ron tell this to me? How could he! While all this time I thought---well, not that it isn't a relief. She just opted to help him. Hermione took a few books on this subject and quoted them to Ron.

~**********~

Harry sat in his room, still in shock. He noticed the magical parchment that Hermione gave to him, it was full of writing. He stood up and took a peek.

Harry thought there was nothing more shocking than what happened at breakfast. He was wrong, very wrong. Ron and Hermione were writing to each other via the parchment. But they weren't just ordinary messages.

Yep, he really couldn't handle all this excitement.